Female Erasure : What You Need To Know About Gender Politics’ War on Women, the Female Sex and Human Rights

June 8, 2016

Cover Art by Claudia Kunin

Less than 48 hours since the announcement of the upcoming Female Erasure anthology and the anti-women, anti-lesbian, anti-speech activists are already swarming with efforts to stop its publication.

The book, to be published by Tidal Time Publishing under editor Ruth Barrett, features a forward by Germaine Greer and the writings of fifty women from various perspectives and backgrounds. The volume should serve as a wonderful primer for anyone interested in the conflict between women and “gender”.

Needless to say, the individuals who are invested in forcibly imposing “gender” on women and girls -wish to censor female speech about the worldwide, violent, reproductive sex-based oppression of women and girls which transcends all cultures and eras.

Anti-feminist and anti-gay activists -mainly of the transgender variety- are already waging a campaign of harassment against the editor, the contributors, and the fundraising website being used to crowdfund the project.

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Regular GenderTrender readers know that it is a rare occasion indeed that I request readers and supporters to take a particular action. I figure readers are grown-ups who can make up their own damn minds about any action they want or need to take, without me nudging them. Same with the editorial content. I present information, people can take it or leave it. I’ve never promoted my work, and I’ve never tried to censor sites with opposing views.

I am making an exception in this case. Please donate to the fundraiser for this book, and also publicize it using your blog, personal contacts or social media. If you can spare ten bucks or more, please kick it in the pot. Whether you are gay or straight, black or white, female or male, left wing or right wing, anti-gender or trans, please support the free speech of feminists critical of “gender” (and free speech in general). Thank you.

A personal note about myself. Which is even more rare than a nudge to take action on this site. I am in this book. Specifically, my book review of convicted murderer Robert Kosilek’s “memoir”, a piece I am incredibly proud of and exemplifies the best of GenderTrender in my opinion. I can’t tell you how incredibly proud I am to be published alongside Germaine Greer! Sheila Jeffreys! Elizabeth Hungerford! Lierre Keith! Julia Long! and the rest- too many fabulous names to list here. This is a really big deal to me- one of the proudest moments of my life!

Congratulations! A great project and I will support it. But when I tried the URL it lead to “this page has been removed” (tried it several times), yet the same URL that Miep gives in her comment, works perfectly well, thank heaven!

Please everybody do this if you can. You can pre-order a copy of the book in hard copy or Kindle as a premium. How ironic (and unsurprising) that a crowdfunding campaign for a book about female erasure is itself being subjected to attempted erasure.

THANKKKK YOUUUUU!!!! You don’t need to be a supporter of anything but free speech to order the book or donate! Also can donate privately or anonymously! I hope people support the publication even if they don’t agree with everything – but YOU are THE BEST!!! THANK YOU

It’s wonderful to be able to do something practical that can get our voices heard. Twenty years ago I saw the beginnings of this in the lesbian scene in London. These days, crippled as I am, I sit in a chair and rage at what I read and watch online as these full-time transvestites mock and bully us. Please let’s get this book published. And with all the publicity the protesters create, a lot of women will get to hear about it😉

Gallus, your writing and reporting have been immensely illuminating for me over the past year I’ve been reading this blog. I’ve learned a great deal from you and from your readers in the comment discussions. Just donated to the book, and was proud to do so.

You have every reason to be proud Gallus,,,,,and not just one, but two titles under your name. Pre-ordering a copy for myself and a copy for a friend who helped open my eyes to the power of women standing together when I was personally punched in the face by things transgender. XXX

As a member of Deep Green Resistance, I feel very honored to have Lierre Keith, Jennifer Bilek and many others of the authors as colleagues and Facebook friends. I am so glad this will be available on Kindle. Will donate and order on Amazon. I saw two entries for you Gallus Mag.🙂

Hi Margie,my apologies for not answering sooner. The deplatforming campaign is still being used against us. Lierre Keith and Derrick Jensen have both been censored from speaking engagements by the Trans Inquisition and many other members have been harrassed. One interesting thing is,at many of the events,when trans try to disrupt,a lot of the audience are simply bewildered over why they are trying to censor us for that but the subject of the presentation has nothing whatsoever to do with trans issues. We get a lot of support from the audience. But it is tiresome and dangerous. We have to worry about security for our speakers and for the audience since arson threats are frequently given. One great venue has been public libraries. They have been supportive because of their tradition of free exchange of ideas for all citizens.

Bob – Thank you so much for the update. I am sorry to be replying to you a week later, but I have been away. I am terribly sorry that you continue to suffer harassment from these thugs. That they harass you even when you are speaking on topics unrelated to trans issues is completely consistent with their prior practice and behavior. They are a militant cult. They don’t care what you are talking about at any given event. They might even agree with everything you have to say. It doesn’t matter. You are The Enemy and must be brought to heel.

In my opinion, nobody wins a war on defense. You can have security watch out for them and have the audience support you, but still, the trans thugs are ones seizing the initiative, determining where and when each confrontation takes place. They suffer no cost for their actions. MichFest took the same posture of all defense and no offense and over time it hurt them. I would say to you the same thing that I said to my dear friends at MichFest: These people are lawbreakers. Use the law and go on the offensive That might mean identifying who these thugs are and, depending on the specifics of their actions, filing a criminal complaint or filing civil lawsuits. Some of these trans activists are financial basket cases, but not all of them. Many of them earn salaries and have savings accounts and those would be put at risk in a civil lawsuit. You might find that they stop the harassment once their own interests are threatened and this becomes less of a cost-free sport. Whatever you do, good luck and thanks for standing up for women!

Butting in here to say Bob public libraries are not always supportive. I went through a lot of strife trying to get them to buy a book I wanted to read. Over the years they have purchased virtually every book I have requested. They refused to buy Gender Hurts. They used every excuse you can imagine. It became embarrassing to see how far they would go. One higher up after another. Meanwhile, they stock Kate Whatisname on how to be a trans teen and a dozen copies of a certain known to us sexologis’st books on how teen girls can do BDSM “safely”. I will never again have faith in libraries and destroyed my card and cancelled my patronage membership.

If only because…..there is a need to have an honest debate. Which is what goes on here. I would be setting one hell of a bad example, if I did not back someone who shares the same values (besides, my little ones know that when I bring up what you talk about @GallusMag…it in the same vein like how I talk about TLM).

I have donated and will try to donate again. There is a reason the trans activists are screaming mad to silence feminists —> they want to portray all opposition to their ideology as coming from right wing religious nuts so they can play the part of victims of persecution. Reasoned criticism of “innate gender” nonsense coming from feminists, real women, reminds people that this male driven movement is NOT made up of an oppressed class but is mostly driven by the oppressor class of white males. And the fact that our concern comes from a place of respecting reality and rights/safety of women (not from religious texts) wrecks their “we are the ultimate victims” narrative. Please help if you can!

Yes- there are women- like Silverside- whose years of research and work are invaluable and critically important and whose contributions are unparalleled. See also: Dirt.
An ongoing series of anthologies would be good!

Can you let us know once the book gets an isbn? I am going to recommend that the Multnomah (Portland, OR) County public library order it, but I think I need those details to do that. It would be nice to see my tax dollars supporting some actual pro-female literature in the home of all things trans.

If you scroll down a bit in the Indiegogo page, on the left side, there is a list of six sections, with the tiles and authors of each piece. It might not be totally final or complete, but it looks pretty amazing.

Congratulations, Gallus. I am envious of you being published with such luminaries, but very happy for you. Moreover, it’s very important that we not be silenced, so I contributed, although I wasn’t brave enough to sign my name.They’re such a hateful lot. Looking forward to reading it!

BTW, how typically arrogant and vile of the trans activists to try to shut down the Indiegogo page. They take millions of LGB dollars to fuel their putrid movement and exploit LGBs for millions of dollars in free labor, but they can’t abide their opponents even a small crowdfunding page. Not even the Christian Right goes to such lengths to suppress its enemies.

Ruth is in an absolute epicenter of shit-flinging monkeys right now-
SUPPORT FREE SPEECH! DONATE OR PRE-ORDER! DO IT NOW!
ALL READERS! You read every day! You depend on us! Whether you agree or not YOU WANT DIALOGUE. SUPPORT FREE SPEECH OF FEMINISTS. PAY UP WITH $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
KICK IN TO THE FUNDRAISER! PRE-ORDER TO FUND!
FREE SPEECH!!!
And THANK YOU to everyone who has.❤❤❤

Good job! THANK YOU! I had issues with the link here- I ended up linking to the segue on the Female Erasure website in my post. That bypasses any filters if the direct link doesn’t work. Also if anti-feminist transgender anti-free-speech activists succeed in censoring the fundraiser it will link to the new site.

Oh, I wondered why you did it that way. Good strategy. If the erasers erase the erasure book fundraiser, that becomes part of the next fundraiser. “The book the women-haters don’t want published.” Go full Dworkin.

Ok back to the beginning. I wondered if there was an overload on the server either people wanting to get on or some sort of botnet situation. No matter I can stay up all night if need be, Thanks will post both links. Its going to be great.🙂

Warmest congratulations, Gallus! Long-time reader here – your work certainly deserves its place among the other luminaries in this book. Read the Kosilek piece years ago – magnificent. Pledged for the hardcover book. Even though I’ve already read many of the pieces in it, I’m very excited to have them together in one volume. Thanks for all you do.

Gay male here, longtime (5+ years) lurker to this BRILLIANT blog. I’m posting here to encourage other gay men who care as deeply as I do about the lesbians in our lives to preorder their copy (I just did!) of what is sure to be a salient, thoughtful, timely and groundbreaking book.

Congratulations Gallus on your inclusion in this anthology, and on your many years of fearless dedication and persistent hard work exposing the truth about the trans movement. You have my gratitude and respect — as do the women who post regularly to this site, from whom I’ve learned so much.

You know, Fran, my horse could tell which humans had dicks and which did not. And he didn’t like the ones who did, wouldn’t have made an iota of difference if they were wearing makeup and frills or calling themselves women.

Hi! I’m a conservative SAH mom of 3 (2 girls and 1 boy) living in a blue state. I discovered your site a few weeks ago thru a Sheila Jeffrey article linked in the comment section of National Review after the whole Obama mandate came down effecting the public schools. Discovering this site was such a relief to me! It comforted me to know that there were others across the political aisle that hadn’t lost their minds. I didn’t know you all existed and it was rather like the discovery of the Ents in LOTR. Anyhow, I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of the hard work you have been doing on the front lines of this insane war on women and children. It was a war that I wasn’t really that aware of until recently. As a very small way of saying thanks, I chipped in towards this book.

I hope the cover will be changed. It’s anti-feminist, racist and just plain embarrassing. I don’t think pagan depictions of floaty objectified women are any better than the Christian themed “Eve”. I am really stunned that such a cover would appear over these fine feminist writings.

Well, of the purpose of art is to make us react, it seems that it worked.
This being said, I think the cover fits in the symbolist tradition (post-romanticism) and works well for the subject of the book. It makes use of an easily identifiable figure, Eve, and clearly represents its progressive disembodiment. Maybe other female archetypes like the Venus of Willendorf could have been used but then the meaning would not have been as obvious.
Most importantly, some will like it, some wont but its too minor to be worth starting a fight about it in light of the importance of the issues discussed by the book.

Red, there is a discussion of this on the page. I believe the idea is that there is a kind of double entendre intended. Or a double erasure, if you will.

I have read plenty of fine literature where the cover art was not what I would personally have chosen. Can’t please everybody. And women put time into creating and choosing that art, unlike either of us.

In any case, female erasure and patriarchal religion are surely related, so it’s not inappropriate.

P.S. I have contributed to the book. I am excited for it. But this cover has got to go. I can’t stress how little I wish to be represented by either Christian or Pagan motifs of women. They are equally sexist. Please do NOT represent us this way.

No the cover doesn’t have to go. Who the fuck are you bossing women around and telling them what “has to go”????? How incredibly rude. The cover depicts the myth of Eve, unflinchingly. Perfectly appropriate for a tome on FEMALE ERASURE. Sounds like it worked a little too well on you! Pretty ironic.

I really like the cover! That’s my opinion, my spontaneous personal response to the artwork. Headless porn corpses would also be just as evocative, provocative, and literally/symbolically “right” for an anthology on the erasure of women …

However, I like the chosen cover because … well … it IS beautiful, and the colours are hopeful, but also because the image is rich in symbolism with multiple interpretations, including the standard religious, male-dominated ones which are annihilating to us.

The Eve figure is washed-out, hollow and ethereal, that’s true. She could be under a spell, and the snake, of course, is a little too close for comfort. But she’s also infused with light, which I immediately felt was her own light, rather than some heavenly source outside herself.

Actually, the very first thing I saw — or, the way I saw it– was that the tree of knowledge is both embracing her AND inside of her. So, I see pre-existing self-knowledge in this imagery. And, in her extended arm, a longing and urge toward a female autonomy that’s in harmony with, instead of separate from, the world around — rather than the archetypal weak woman in the grip of seduction or temptation.

And forgive my word choice here (I promise I don’t mean this in the postmodern sense) but it is, in my view, quietly “subversive.”

I think it’s the prettiness, and that the work is contemporary that naysayers are finding disturbing. If the cover showed a renaissance-era painting of eve I doubt women would find it disturbing. Beauty is subversive when you find it disturbing, I agree.

I do agree with you Morag. It is pretty, beautiful even. I appreciate your description and analysis. I can see what you see. But, I would say it’s very stereotypically and racist pretty and I, we, try to resist that don’t we?

My first reaction to the cover was that it portrays the first great erasure of the intuitive belief in female deity (life-giving nourishing Mother), accomplished with the death-cult scam that is monotheism with its male sky-god (remote, arbitrarily powerful and vengeful Father) co-opting the powers of the creation of all life.

Trees (Tree of Knowledge), snakes (shedding of skin, resurrection), the apple (nourishment, the wisdom of Sophia being the fruits of knowledge), all ancient symbols of accessible and glowing female spirit, were denigrated as evil, dangerous, uncontrollable Nature. Be afraid, be very afraid. Ahhhhhhh!

With women across the globe working hard to get the jackboot of arbitrary and arrogant male power off their necks, science and experience being on our side, the boys had to come up with something stat to erase woman again. I’m encouraged that this trans bullshit is the best they’ve been able to come up with. Pitiable.

Obviously it has to go then. The editor clearly did not consider how you, personally, wish to be represented on the cover of this book. I am, too, am offended and outraged that you weren’t consulted! How self-absorbed can a person be, right?

Seeing as though Ruth Barrett’s essay is titled “Eve Was Framed”, my guess is that it is about the framing Eve to fit a certain narrative, just like the cover is doing, creating a meta-narrative. Clever, it might even be worth reading! It is almost as if the cliche that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover exists for a reason.

I really don’t feel that of Eve represents me either- I prefer savory snacks, I don’t like snakes or naked dudes in the woods, but who thinks this is a story about “inclusion”? The men who wrote this ancient fairy tale are certainly dust and don’t have an email where I can express my concerns.

Just to be clear, you are saying that Ruth Barrett wrote the essay that is included in this anthology after you contacted her about the cover? This essay was listed in the contents when I first saw the fundraiser posting.

I responded to your comment because I found your presumption of authority very obnoxious. I don’t use Reddit, so if you think this is the continuation of some other conversation from another website, it is not.

“She posted her essay *after* our conversation because I wasn’t the only one who expressed this perspective.”

She posted a response to concerns aboutparticular on the fundraising page the essay “Eve was Framed” was always a part of this anthology and inspiration for the cover. Comments on that Reddit thread seems to suggest that it was a cover-up afoot and that is ridicuolous because it is clear that the cover was very specifically chosen based on the theme of this anthology and her actual essay in particular.

I can’t wait to get this book!!!! I’m specifically going down to my bank today to put in some money so I can preorder (I’m one of THOSE people that keeps most of my $ in cash in hand) AND I’m going to just plain donate as well. I introduced my mom to your blog a few months ago Gallus and now SHE tells ME when you’ve made a new post! LOL! I’m going to convince her to also preorder and make a donation. I’m sure it’ll be just like twisting her rubber arm. LOL

CONGRATULATIONS on being included with all of these amazing authors! I’m proud of myself that I knew who the vast majority of them are. Seriously, you must be so excited and honoured! Myself? I would be absolutely honoured beyond belief to be included in a book with a forward by Germaine effing GREER of all people. Gosh, the roster of phenominal women authors featured in this book is just BLOWING MY MIND!!!!!

Thank you Gallus for all you do. I finally just got a job (that I can be proud of even!) after years of being on disability with no work and I’m going to make it my MISSION to donate regularly to your page. You deserve all of this and more! I don’t know you but I am SO PROUD OF YOU!!! *applause for you GallusMag* I hope this is the first of MANY publications with your name included. Forgive me, but have you any other publications besides this amazing blog? Honestly, you should! I would love to own books written by you! My radical feminist library has grown leaps and bounds over the past 5 years and I would be so happy to have a bunch by you all lined up with the others! Their work has certainly changed my life and so has your work.

Have a fantastic weekend! I’m so happy for you I could BURST!

Sorry for the long comment, I just am so excited for you and for this book! YAY YAY !!!

Not to derail, but this is where we are right now in terms of free speech. Feminists are having their books banned, while pornographers are no longer required to keep records of the ages of the “actors” they use in their films, rules that were developed to curtail the sexual exploitation of and trafficking of youth. Why? You guessed it. It is a violation of their First Amendment rights. Absolutely repulsive. And I thought I couldn’t be shocked anymore. Patriarchy in the 21st century just gets more and more brazen. The sugarcoating of the 20th century is eroding, and now we’re seeing more and more of the raw stuff. http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-06-09/the-first-amendment-gone-wild

I think MRA’s go around and do that to people to see what kind of reaction they can get. If you’re not up for trolling them right back, I recommend blocking. They are looking for conciliatory response.

@charlston are you serious? Someone was that insane to do this…..over supporting a book?

This reminds me of when yours truly had been attacked, years ago…over stating very few docs I knew of would give out the HRT M&Ms like candy to folks who had congestive heart failure or kidney failure, etc. Seems the borg and their toadiesis upset when facts call out their BS.

So glad I came over here today – I will preorder the book on the 15th when my SS check is deposited. I am really looking forward to reading it – thank you so much for posting about it.

And congratulations on your 2 entries in the anthologies! I remember finding your site a few years ago when it was pulled off WordPress and, after it came up, the Kosilek essay was one of the first I read. I was completely absorbed into the story by your lucid writing about that murderer.

Your site was my first intro into radical feminism – so very glad I stumbled in!

“Stefanie declares herself to be a “typical woman” who “loves gossip” and wants girlie chats with her daughter about shoes and make-up. Having spent decades deliberately avoiding cliches of femininity, Faludi recoils from the actions of a father who now wishes to reinforce, rather than challenge, these received ideas. More cuttingly still, Stefi acts as if it is she who has things to teach Susan about how to be a woman. “You write about the disadvantages of being a woman, but I’ve only found advantages.” How infuriating it must have been to hear those words.

Faludi wants to understand her father, but finds that “every road into the interior was blocked by a cardboard cut-out of florid femininity”. The author takes refuge in the literature, and talks to doctors, psychologists, and other trans people, but much of what she learns heightens her disquiet. “The woman they had always known they were seemed to be the exact sort of girl I’d always thought of as false,” she observes, adding that “genital surgeries and hormone treatments evidently produced not only a new physiology but a new and girlish personality – or rather, an old, old stereotype” of women as weak, passive, emotionally unstable, superficial, interested only in make up, baking, cooing over babies, pleasing men. Far from enabling her to understand her father, her investigations “were having the opposite effect”.
What’s more, a disturbing edge of sexual fetishism always seemed to be lurking just below the surface. She notes that it’s one of the basic tenets of transgenderism that identity and sexuality are different things, but Faludi finds them constantly conflated.

“The transformation from one gender to another was eroticised at every step.” The screensaver on her father’s computer is of Stefanie dressed as a French maid, with blonde curls like Susan’s as a child, reaching down to adjust a stocking, while the ‘How To’ manuals advise those who think of themselves as women to “practise submission with sex toys in front of a mirror”. The idea of submission was never likely to appeal to such a committed feminist. Her father also keeps barging into her room without warning in revealing negligees.
At this point, the reader is still less than halfway through this blistering, raw, absorbingly written story, and it seems as if promising avenues of exploration are opening up. As Faludi says, the trend since Freud has been to accept that the real psychological origins for a person’s behaviour are complex, often hidden deeply from plain sight, but a fear of giving offence to those who identify as transgender has meant that there is no equivalent examination of the range of reasons why a human being might feel they are in the “wrong” body. Accepting their own self-diagnosis without question might avoid confrontation with those for whom transgenderism is a matter of faith, but it does so at the expense of intellectual honesty. What if they’re actually “seeking womanhood to reclaim (their) innocence, be exonerated from the sins of (a) a male past”, or “craving the moral stature that comes from being oppressed”? Or simply wanting to be a woman to “feel special, celebrated, loved”?

She wants those in the transgender community to ask those questions, but finds that they never do, and dogmatically refuse to. ”

This is doing really well, Consider a tier between the $100 and $250 levels. Also, what does it take to be “hot” or “trending” on that site? I think this is doing well enough to be considered hot and trending.

Wow! It’s great to see the campaign doing so well! I donated and commented already, but I wanted to throw in my 2 cents about the higher tiers. So far, there haven’t been any takers at the 2 highest tiers. In my experience (and I do have some experience with crowdfunding), to entice people into the higher tiers, you might want to consider offering a perk that is somewhat special or unique. If you are giving books and CDs to the folks at the $400 level, then a perk of books and CDs in greater quantities tends not to draw people to the $5000 level.

What often does work is 1) a credit that appears in the work itself and/or 2) the prospect of some kind of interaction with the creators. The credit in the book could be something like a mention in the Acknowledgments section. Or it could even mean giving the donors themselves a sentence or two to express why they supported the project. Those statements could be put in the Acknowledgments section or even on the back cover, in lieu of review blurbs. It may not seem like a big deal, but it memorializes the “Amazon Warriors'” contribution for all time and for all to see, something that the folks on the lower tiers don’t get. As far as interaction, that can take different forms, and can be tailored to the comfort level of the creators. For example, it could be a Skype session with one or more of the contributing authors to discuss feminist issues, or to discuss the book. Or it could be a special invitation to a book signing event, where the donor could chat with the authors. Again, it’s something that the folks at the lower tiers don’t get, which is what makes it enticing. Anyway, these are just some thoughts I wanted to share as I hope to see this project do really well. Either way, it is good to see that it is taking off.

Gallus, congrats on inclusion in this anthology. You’re excitement overall, and about being in the same pages as Germaine Greer (!!!) are infectious and makes me smile. 😀

I imagine most posters and readers here are NOT pagan, but I am and I’m also deeply disturbed that WeMoon and SageWoman Magazine are denouncing this work,Ruth et al, and Dianic witches and pagans for knowing penis is male. Susan, the author of the hit piece, admits she didn’t even read about the focus of the book, which covers the historical record of female erasure, starting with the whitewashing of Eve and up to today’s transactivism. She states, “trans women are women. Period. ” That’s trans rhetoric 101. No allowance for discussion and debate. Just condemnation, censorship and no platforming. And We’Moon tweeting like they’ve got some sort of moral high authority over who’s a good priestess and what goddess is the right goddess makes me laugh and sick at the same time. Hey We’Moon, your hierophant is showing..

The best book I ever read on pagan beliefs and how diverse pagans are is Margot Adler’s Drawing Down the Moon. There is a section on dianics in there.

Thank you MichfestMovesMe. It’s good to know where support and opposition are coming from. Did the editors of Sagewoman condemn the anthology that isn’t out yet, or was it just some contributor opinion piece?

I am sad to hear what you are reporting about the pagan community. Are there any pagan groups that are not buying into the trans narrative? And, my goodness, I haven’t thought about Drawing Down the Moon in forever, that really rang a bell – great book – read it when it came out…

As a pagan who has attended community festivals like pantheacon I feel you. That little twerp dissing Dianics and goddess priestesses, like he would know shit about it…

I remember an after party a decade ago when I had a chat with one of the male mucky-mucks of one of the major esoteric schools about the fact that so much was so ‘men only’ still in the higher levels. He was pretty frank about how it was about male energy and male space and how he thought that was OK, there was always the Dianics, etc for women to advance in a female mode. I countered with how the old ‘Adam kadmon’ view of (male) energy being higher than ( female) matter being obsolete, since matter is energy as science proves. Women’s magick is still a ghetto and will likely always be so as long as the male-dominated ceremonial groups still call the shots.

Whatever, pantheacon will happily host groups who have male only rites offsite, they will allow groups like Asatru which has a history of racism, but they will cave if some wanna be ‘lady’ complains about not being allowed into a women’s circle. Fuck, I thought they didn’t like to hear about All that stuff about uteruses, birth, and menstruation, what did they think we did there? do our hair and nails and gossip?

At this point, I think I will search out a nearby female coven to support and I will advocate a return to the old tradition of killing any man who stumbles upon our rites ala Diana (kidding, sort of).

Thank you for this and I had to think about this, as someone who has nipped along the edges of neo- paganism for a number of years (and it has been a long time).

I read some of the stuff referenced. Of course the Goddess has large enough arms for anybody, if that is your path, sure. It is no secret in neo-paganism that one’s interpretation of Goddess can be pretty wide but I thought it was a given that Goddess is not male-centric and dominated.

Neo-paganism can be filled with some people that are not exactly rocket scientists, but if women don’t get in an Earth and Goddess centered path that female is not of the head of a male, and that what they call love and acceptance is upending the definition of female, I call fear of their own path and an inability to say no on behalf of the Goddess and women. Anybody can decide what circles work for them and if they consider transwomen women in their own circles, fine, but trashing other priestesses because of actual female-centered paths and female-centered thinking is simply shameful.

Miep Says..”They are looking for conciliatory response.”
rheapdx1 Says:..”are you serious? Someone was that insane to do this…..over supporting a book?”
No worries. I just donated to the book fund using under his name, nice of him wasn’t it? 🙂

When the immature start spitting on legitimate research and publications…then the cause is on the right wavelength. Not to forget…by attempting censorship, gee they are just proving the points being made…and then some.

I just donated anonymously to the book. I’m a hetrosexual male but also a revolutionary Marxist in the UK has not drunk the cool aid of postmodernist, queer theory, identity politics. I understand that many radical feminists have a hostility to Marxism due to both the oppression women did suffer under Stalinism and that today in the West the majority of so-called Marxists have capitulated to the reactionary ideology of ‘innate gender’ and so are hostile to women.

However it must be stressed that classical Marxist theory advanced a conception of women’s oppression that was based on an understanding that it was control over women’s bodies by men in both the family unit and their reproductive organs and was utterly hostile to prostitution which is the commodification of women’s bodies. It’s for this reason that the minority of Marxists like myself find ourselves supporting radical feminists like yourselves, just as in the 60’s and 70’s genuine, non-Stalinist, Marxist theory influenced a whole layer of radical feminists who in term helped us by challenging the 19th century chauvinism within Marxism and the often male dominated Marxist movement.

I hold out little hope for the majority of current ‘Marxists’ just as you do for the majority of current ‘feminists’ who have debased themselves and women as whole by embracing a men’s right movement based on reinforcing gender, that is oppressive sex roles. None the less in the last year there have been some small indications of a reaction within the Marxist movement, no doubt originating from the pioneer work radical feminists have done.

Speaking for myself only and not the owner of this blog or any other posters–gawd, is there anything more tiresome than an old Marxist mansplainer? Classical Marxism doesn’t even come close to understanding women as a distinct class suffering distinct forms of oppression. We had to have a whole second wave of feminism to even recognize that, let alone begin to deal with it. Current Marxism, such as it is, ain’t gonna show the way.

So, again, speaking for myself only, thanks for the mansplanation. Now go make your own sammich and fuck off.

That wasn’t mansplaining – we should beware of using that term to describe all and any male speech. It was an expression of solidarity, and a statement of the compatibility of proper materialist ‘Marxism’ with radical feminist analysis.
Marxism isn’t feminism… but, done properly, it’s sure as hell not anti-feminist.

I mean, the dude even said himself that current self-proclaimed ‘Marxists’ are pretty shit. And no sammiches were requested, nor cookies.

Its pretty sad how the Pagan community, which I assumed was more nature oriented, seem to buy the transcraze hook, line and sinker. I would have expected for more support for Ruth specifically, and women and free speech in general. I used to see the resurgence of a more nature oriented spirituality in a time of ecological crisis as a positive development. I dont see the point anymore if its going be ridden with the same trans nonsense than the rest of society. Methink some of these folks need to spend more time in nature than talking about it if they have lost sight that sex is biologically determined and fundamental in insuring that life goes on and evolves from one generation to the other. They show an utter lack of respect for Mother Nature if they defend trannies obfuscations over what the most basic observations can tell them.

Indeed it has little to do with earth and goddess centered religions but also some of these are the same people who think nothing of appropriating native American spirituality (and even history) with a new age-make your own reality (and in this case, make your own sex). It doesn’t surprise me at all that they don’t believe women are actually real and not something they can concoct.

The majority of: skeptics are pro-trans, primitive anarchists are pro trans, anti capitalists are pro trans, atheist are pro trans, anti civ people are pro trans. It’s just stupid, all these groups should be critical of transgenderism for various reasons- like if you think collapse is eminent and should be hastened, why the fuck would you encourage people to be come voluntarily medically dependent on a system you are trying to bring down?

They are just all a bunch of male supremacists, they support men’s right to tell women what to think and do. They all worship patriarchy, male supremacy, it’s their core belief and trans is a male supremacist ideology, the crazy fuck idea that men have the power to turn men into women and that women should obey men and believe whatever crazy shit they dream up.

“like if you think collapse is eminent and should be hastened, why the fuck would you encourage people to be come voluntarily medically dependent on a system you are trying to bring down?”

That doesn’t get brought up enough, that a lot (though not all) of these anarchist anti-civ doomer sorts support transgenderism, so basically what they are supporting is transgenderism sans medicine, which is complete magical thinking, and not in a good way.

And without a complex medical culture, what happens to people who have undergone surgery, what happens to people who can no longer acquire artificial hormones? I don’t think these fake anarchists care about these people at all, they are just using them as tools to harass women.

And what you are in essence saying is that skeptics, primitive anarchists, anti-capitalists, atheists, and anti-civilization folks DO NOT THINK. Jeezums, that doesn’t make them all that different from non-skeptics, fascists, capitalists, believers, and those think civilization is evolution. Why is this not a surprise?

Another thing is that synthetic hormones are damaging to wildlife. For example, swifts and swallows congregate around sewage treatment plants to feed on flies. The flies are eating the human poo, which contains synthetic hormones from HRT, contraception and now trans treatment. Oestrogen is similar in all vertebrates, so when the birds eat the flies they are affected by these synthetic hormones and can’t produce eggs. Hence the decline in these species.

Now my Paypal account is active, I tried to preorder. But to the Netherlands shipping is ‘not available’. Can something be done about this, GallusMag? If not, I will donate, but I’d really like to have the book.

They say on the fundraiser “If you don’t see your country in the shipping options, please contact us so we can expand it to the global community.” So maybe try seeing if you can contact from there or via the publisher link and they could help from there?

I’m a longtime reader and first-time comment-writer. Those people I have found who agree with my position (that the Trans advocacy movement is deeply sexist and perpetuates/strengthens gender role stereotypes) are, at least in my circumstance, sadly few and far between.

Because of my career, I needed to donate anonymously and comment pseudonymically. I was happy to do so, though, and would have donated more money if I had the funds.

Keep fighting the good fight. I check your blog (and other gender-critical sites) multiple times a week. Thanks for all you do!

Though on one level I expect to see the erasure of women and lesbians in the media, I just found an example that is just breathtaking in the sheer audacity of it all. Thought I would share it with you all. By locating a website through a website through a website, I found a list of LGBT murder victims in Brazil (in Portuguese). By combing through the list carefully, it was possible to sift out the victims that are identified as lesbians (Lesbica). Almost nothing is said about the circumstances of each case. To find out more, you have to google the names individually and hopefully find a newspaper article in Portuguese that can then be translated into garbled English. I then discovered that FOUR LESBIANS on the list were MURDERED BY THE SAME SERIAL KILLER, though the newspaper article (of course) did not mention they were lesbians. I then googled LGBT murders in Brazil to see what the English language media reports about these issues and (surprise!) it’s all about poor murdered transwomen and gay men in Brazil. The fact that four lesbians were murdered by a single killer doesn’t even merit a mention ANYWHERE, though the individual murders of trans women and gay men are even reported on occasion in the Advocate, the Blade, etc. RIP to our sisters: Renata Cristina Pedrosa Moreira, Andreia Goncalves Leao, Paloma Aparecida dos Santos, and Natasha Silva Santos. We will not forget your names.

I”m certainly on a different political page than many of the women on this site. But as someone who values free speech and vigorous debate, that’s fine and may the best ideas win! As to transgender issues, I’m with you 100% – trans is an anti-science, anti-woman, anti-family, anti-logic, anti-mental health ideology spearheaded by men who crave dominion even over the identity of womanhood. I will gratefully and happily purchase this book, too.

Congratulations on having a piece of writing in the book, Gallus Mag! I went and put in a donation and I am really exited to read it.

I am disgusted by the censorship attempts, but I get why they occur. If a bunch of lesbians question the trans narrative, it kind of ruins the argument that anyone who does so is a right-wing homophobe. That, and lesbians are an easier target than any males questioning it.

To any liberals or other folks who are against book banning but are turning a blind eye to this censorship or supporting it, shame on you.

I really appreciate that you have this blog so that we can have a safe space to discuss these issues. I know I’d lose my sanity if I was trying to keep up with all the fuckery from the trans movement.

So glad I was able to help. Must have ordered at least a dozen books, and can’t wait to read your contribution Gallus! This is a book we need to share with all women who have no idea the horror, arrogance and aggression these pretenbians, female impersonators and women erasers are bringing into the world.

So excited to have received my print copy and to see your word in print, Gallus, along with the words of so many other strong and fearless women! There is something special about seeing words in ink on paper. They won’t be forced down the memory hole too easily. I am going to read my copy ’til it’s dog eared and then place it somewhere it will be found by others. Hmmm…. how hard would it be to sneak it onto the shelf at my kid’s school library?

Many of us are having an incredibly bad day. In fact, I am surprised at some of the people who are incensed at the turn of events last night as I would have thought otherwise, and over the past few days got shocked at who was actually going to vote for Trump. I am ready to scream.

My book arrived yesterday, and I can’t wait to read it. I also really liked the surprise “extra” in the package–a door-knob hang tag with a picture of a woman drawing a bow and the words “Female Sovereign Space: Do Not Disturb.” I have it on the door of my home office. (Too bad we can’t put a giant version of it on the White House!)

I can’t tell you how timely the arrival of my book was. I just met with an old friend, a beautiful, strong, brilliant woman who has been through so much. She’s someone who I had in mind as a strong, glorious example of non-conforming womanhood while I was detransitioning.

She informed me that she is now “genderqueer” and goes by “they/them” pronouns.

This woman is no basic tumblrina teen. She’s got a really fucking air-tight philosophical/sociological/academic bullshit bubble built around herself about the whole thing. But I know that beneath it all, she’s smarter than that, she’s stronger than that, I know she is, and it’s so painful for me to watch.

I tried to be gentle. I stayed calm. But I also told her that I feel it’s a total betrayal of women. I told her that, as a matter of biological fact, she *embodies* the female experience by virtue of being female and being alienated by the demands of “femininity.” I asked her what special experience she thinks she is privy to that other women do not know of, and does she actually think other females are happy and accepting of the things she is rejecting just because they call themselves women?

I told her it broke my heart that if I was to introduce a young woman to her, that her self-identification would give the young woman the impression that one cannot be strong, strange, and still call ones self “woman.”

She defended it as being essential to mental health and wellness. I told her that it may be a coping mechanism, but just like cutting or alcoholism, “it helps me to survive” doesn’t always mean “it’s a good thing.”

I told her that I’d use whatever pronouns she wanted because what-the-fuck-ever, but that it is only a matter of being polite and cordial to someone I care about. I t is not because I mean to affirm, validate, or support anything about the ideology. It is purely out of being kind to a friend, period.

She pulled the “PEOPLE ARE KILLING THEMSELVES!!” card, and I refused the emotional blackmail. I told her I did not appreciate being held emotionally hostage. I was stoic.

I told her I think “cis” is a slap in the face and that the whole thing is a mass delusion. I said to her, “you have a male partner, you recognize you’re female, other people can see that you’re female, and you don’t seek medical intervention or call yourself “trans”- yet you really think you aren’t “cis”??”

She knows she’s female, but she’d rather be anything but “woman.” It was awful.

She asked me about my detransition, and it seemed clear to me that part of her was threatened by it and wanted to set herself apart. However! I also sensed that another part of her wanted to know how I got through the process of disidentifying with womanhood, because perhaps she could see herself getting over that shit too.

Sorry for the longest comment ever, but honestly, it was so fucking jarring to me. Think of the very, very LAST person you’d expect to hear such a thing from- THAT’S what it was like. I fully expect her to snap out of it within 3-5 years so I don’t want to totally break off our friendship. I want to keep that door open. I want to be firm, but gentle. I’m SO glad she’s not seeking medical intervention. I got home and my guts were in knots. I couldn’t sleep.

Then, my copy of the book arrived. I almost cried because of the timing. There are contributors I ADORE, others who are new to me, and even a couple who make me cringe tbh, lol! Which is GREAT! It’s such a great mix, and it’s SO welcome right now.

Thanks for hearing me out. It’s been a shitty few days for everyone, I’m sure, (election blah blah blah) so I’m SO happy to start exploring this little lovely care-package. I put the awesome doorknob-sign on my bathroom, LOL!

If you ordered a book with a cd or dvd bonus it should have come with the book, I think. Gosh how frustrating is that? Ugh. Please drop a message at the contact form. Sorry. That sucks. That makes me really angry.

If anyone doesn’t get what they ordered please leave a message here. Thank you. Are people having issues receiving their orders? If so I would like to know. Women donated 25 GRAND for this thing and if they are not getting their orders I need to know. Thank you.

Many feminists have purchased and read transgender authored books regarding gender. That would be readily apparent to anyone with even the slightest passing familiarity with feminism and gender theory. Which isn’t you. Gosh what a stupid male pig-in-a-wig idiot you are. #Derp

If you had read the book you would know that your male “sister”, decapatation killer Robert Kosilek was paid two dollars for for his book- my review of which is published in the compilation.

Honestly (and maybe selfishly, as someone with no financial stake), I don’t care if you buy the book, but I sure wish you would read it. Screaming “TERF” every time someone mentions biological sex is pointless. Making strawman arguments so bad they’re arguing against the inverse of actual GC ideas is pointless (reducing women to genitals lololol). Threatening us is pointless. If you want to engage in a constructive way, you need to understand where the other side is coming from. Otherwise, everything you say does nothing but confirm all our worst suspicions about your movement.

IME most GC feminists have read Butler et al, but the average trans activist is grossly uneducated about GC feminism, or really feminism of any stripe. The number of explicitly antifeminist trans activists & trans “feminists” who think ‘radical feminism’ means “cool feminism” or “extreme feminism”… ugh. (If I never again hear “TERFs are neither radical nor feminist”, as if “radical feminism” wasn’t an open compound word with a well-defined meaning, it’ll be too soon.)

Obviously, TAs only care about “intersectionality” when it personally benefits them. Women are expected to put in their blood, sweat, and tears to help trans issues, but trans people only show up to women’s issues to complain about how making vulva cupcakes or talking about “pregnant women” is too TERFy. You call us uneducated, but we read your books, and you refuse to read ours… who do you think you’re fooling? Because it’s not us…

I bought a hardcopy, surprised and impressed by how weighty it is and the breadth of content. I’m only about 1/4 through but so far, I found the entry about female prehistory to be really intriguing. Some of the bits in this section are inaccurate, I think, but I don’t think it was redone since it was originally published, so that’s bound to happen.

But it’s definitely true that the first religions were female-centric goddess religions, and that newer male-focused religions misappropriate the ability to bring forth life. They take it from women and give it to male gods in order to justify men’s dominion over women. Really backwards and absurd, when you think about it.

I also thought the hypothesis of woman-led evolution was interesting. Once I’m done with Female Erasure I’ll try to dig up some more on that. At the very least, it’s an interesting thought experiment. Of course men are always considered the default in discussions about pre-history, even though the male-centered just-so stories often make little sense. Pictures of our ancestors learning to make tools are nearly always men, even though burial sites and modern HG societies suggest that toolmaking was not a heavily gendered activity, and where it was, it was typically a woman’s task. Stories about humankind domesticating dogs tend to depict a male in the lead, too, even though women were usually the fire-tenders (aka the ones best positioned to feed them cooking scraps) and study after study shows that women are better at befriending animals. Even the classic “progression of human evolution” pics… always men. The idea that men evolved and women were just dragged along for the ride is obviously false but it seems to still be the dominant narrative. Annoying but not surprising, and also not surprising that any suggestion of the flip side is considered a crazy fringe theory. Woman as default, how dare!